Friday, October 03, 2008

The Pac Ten might be the country’s worst conference, and I don’t mean that as hyperbole, but as a simple recitation of fact.

Consider –

The conference leaders (a 4 way-tie at present) have lost to 3 Mountain West teams, and an ACC and SEC team, yet are undefeated in their conference play. In these 5 losses the non-conference opposition has scored 158 points, or 31.6 points per game.

Next you have 3-2 Stanford, winner of two Pac Ten conference games, itself a loser to Mountain West opponent TCU, and 2-2 conference foe Arizona State.

Oregon State, winner over perpetual “TEAM OF THE CENTURY” USC (the Trojans have somehow managed only to play 3 games at this point), is 2-3 overall as of last night, losing to Penn State, Utah (Mountain West) and…Stanford.

Then you have the bottom of the bottom, UCLA, Washington State and Washington, with a cumulative record of 2-11.

If that is not enough, USC is tied for second-to-last in this so-called conference with UCLA.

Overall the Pac Ten is 1-6 against the Mountain West.

Then we have last night’s game, in which Utah defeated Oregon State, one week after the Beavers dominated USC. And I don’t use the term “dominated” lightly, as USC never led, was losing 21-0 at halftime, and was outrushed by 90 yards (176-86). That same rushing attack managed only 92 total yards against the Utes, as Oregon State’s Rogers (that one, not the other one) rushed for 101 yards the week after he gained 186 yards against the supposed dominating Trojan defense.

As of now, Oregon State has now beaten only USC and…. Hawaii.

I’m going to put this very simply – ranking USC ahead of Utah after this weekend – regardless of how USC plays against Oregon, is totally unjustifiable. In fact, ranking them ahead of most 1-loss teams after this weekend is groundless.

(I don’t want to hear about Ohio State victory, either. At this point the Buckeyes have beaten lower division Youngstown State (2-3 overall), Ohio (1-4), Troy (2-2) and Minnesota (4-1, but against easy opponents). There is virtually no evidence that Ohio State is very good.)

USC’s loss to Oregon State should eliminate them from MNC contention, especially in light of the fact that they can only play Pac Ten teams (and Notre Dame) to get them back in. And when you play in a conference this lousy, it shouldn't help you at all.

Recognition

I can’t say enough about my two favorite blogs Get the Picture and Saurian Sagacity. There are not two more consistently thought-provoking and analytical college football blogs on the internet.
-Orange and Blue Hue

Rare is the SMQ shout out for the sole purpose of shouting out, but even rarer is the high substantive quality of disinterested naysaying in progress at Saurian Sagacity, where poster Mergz is steadily blowing up notions of "National Championships" new and old...-Sunday Morning Quarterback

In the old days, long before Urban Meyer roamed the sidelines at The Swamp, even before Steve Spurrier was slinging touchdowns and kicking game-winning field goals, some sports writers gave the University of Florida's football team a long-forgotten nickname: theSaurians. Today, two Florida alums pay tribute to those scribes of old as we enjoy the present and look toward the future.